Over the last year, working from home has been an inescapable fact of life for many. For some the level of self-direction that this afforded had a positive impact on both their performance and attitude to work. (1) For others it has had a destabilising effect on their work-life balance. For some it’s working from home- for others, it’s living at work. The blurring of boundaries between home and workplace allows professional responsibilities to transgress upon time set aside for personal ones- including the responsibility to care for your own health. That being said; in some respects working from home may be beneficial to physical and mental health by axing the need for long, stressful and polluted commuting routes. (2) The impact of fewer vehicles on the road to local wildlife and carbon emissions is also an advantage that shouldn’t be overlooked. For those who work in already competitive fields the broadening of the candidate pool beyond the commutable area represents a further challenge. This is something that is particularly hard to address when suggesting that more businesses should facilitate home-working when possible: even if it isn’t compulsory, it still opens the position to more applicants across a wider area. From another perspective, sustaining the increase in work from home positions beyond the pandemic could begin to address pre-existing regional divisions which have been highlighted by it. (4) With nearly half of all new jobs in England over the last decade being created in London and the South East (6) physical location has been a limiting factor in individual employment. Chances that people would otherwise not know existed could now be made accessible and the unique skills they possess be fully appreciated. Working from home isn’t something that should immediately be set aside post pandemic. It has real potential as a tool of change, but it needs active and careful consideration to be integrated into working culture in a way that benefits us all. 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/technology/working-from-home.html 2. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/business/pandemic-work-from-home-coronavirus.html 3. https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/comment/the-north-south-divide-in-the-uks-jobs-market/ 4. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2021/01/red-wall-diary-how-covid-19-has-newly-exposed-north-south-divide 5. https://www.recruitment-international.co.uk/blog/2020/07/north-south-divide-increases-by-half-for-job-seekers 6. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/21/almost-half-of-all-new-jobs-in-england-are-in-south-east-report

I am mixed about this topic as well. On the one hand, it is true that working from home has opened up job opportunities in different places of the country and the world, giving people the chance to get a job and be part of a team from the comfort of their own home. It is also great that working from home provides comfort and decreases stress for some people who feel more productive in this setting. However, I know many people who find working from home negatively affects their mental and physical health because they do not get out of the house and do not socialise as much as they did pre-Covid. I think that there should be a balance between working from home and working outside the house to cater for different needs and increase productivity at work.

**TL;DR Working for home is bad for business as it does not work to facilitate cohesion among colleagues within a company.** Despite the use of platforms such as Zoom, Slack and Google Teams, working from home has proved detrimental to employee mental health and thus the relationships between colleagues. Remote working and online communication does not work in favour of building meaningful relationships, especially for new employees. On top of this, a study found that social interaction is greatly correlated with engagement and satisfaction (Rath and Harter 2010). Without the familiar interaction with colleagues in the workplace, employees can suffer from mental health issues, which can affect their working relationships due to onset of anxiety. Grenny and Maxfield (2017) note that remote working affects the formation of trust, connection and mutual purpose within online working environments. For these reasons, it is important to encourage the return to the work place after the Covid-19 pandemic. https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/127043/friends-social-wellbeing.aspx https://hbr.org/2017/11/a-study-of-1100-employees-found-that-remote-workers-feel-shunned-and-left-out

**Tl;dr: Working from home can create a loss of social interaction which human’s physical and mental health is dependent on. Therefore, working from home should not remain after the pandemic is over.** Social interaction is essential to our mental and physical health and the workplace is a key institution of socialisation for many adults. Working from home and minimising interaction we run the risk of losing motivation, becoming lonely and a literal broken heart. A recent study by the Journal of the American Heart Association Report showed social isolation along with heart failure could increase hospitalisations and death.[1] They argued ‘socially isolated patients were more likely to die than more socially connected patients.’ A key example of how we were made to interact with others and taking away our work spaces permanently would deprive us o a key aspect of daily interactions. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic there have been an increase in suicides due to lack of social interaction increasing poor mental health.[2] John Okolie predicts that suicide rates could rise 145% by the end of the pandemic. Keeping people from communicative and interactive work environments longer than this could increase this figure even longer. [1] Social isolation plus heart failure could increase hospitalizations, deaths, The Journal of the American Heart Association Report, 2018. [2] John Okolie, The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm and suicidal behaviour: a living systematic review.

**Tl;dr: Telecommuting can help reverse the significant geographical inequality in the U.S.** For years, the growth in the United States has concentrated in a few cities. These superstar cities, such as New York and San Francisco, play a disproportionate role in the national economy. They take up most of the job growth, entrepreneurship, and economic activities in the country. On the other hand, Small cities and rural areas have seen a decline in population, opportunities, and culture. Such a trend has caused significant issues on many fronts. The superstar cities have become increasingly crowded and expensive. Low-income workers often struggle to find affordable housing close to their work. Politically, urban and rural areas have drifted apart in ideologies and intensified polarization. Simply put, America has become two different societies. Telecommuting, incentivized by the Covid-19 crisis, can change that. The disconnection between residence and work opportunities can drive people away from expensive superstar cities. According to U-Haul’s annual review, coastal states and expensive cities saw significant out-migration in 2020. If the trend continues, the rest of the country may see an influx of well-off people. Such an influx can lead to an increase in local tax revenues and economic demands. Over time, America can have an equal distribution of economic activities and labor force. Liberal ideas can expand the handful of urban cores. These welcoming trends can ease many social, economic, and political problems of the current era. “I won the places that represent two-thirds of America's gross domestic product. So I won the places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward.” said Hilliary Clinton. [2] If telecommuting can flourish beyond the Covid-19 crisis, that description may expand to far more places in the United States. [1]. Spross, Jeff. 2018. "Hillary Clinton's Revealing Economic Elitism". The Week, , 2018. https://theweek.com/articles/760606/hillary-clintons-revealing-economic-elitism. [2]. Thompson, Derek. 2020. "Superstar Cities Are In Trouble". The Atlantic, , 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/remote-work-revolution/617842/.